personal stories of food, cooking, stuff & things

A cookie for Libby

So Petey had me make dog treats for training our new puppy, Crowley. He wanted something small, to carry in his pocket.

Petey and the pooch were out in the yard a couple weeks ago, when our neighbor’s dog, Luna, a beautiful blue rescue pit/mix went walkabout.

Petey and the monster. This photo was taken months ago. Last Tuesday he turned 6 months old, and on Wednesday during a visit to the vet, he tipped the scales at 80 pounds.

She ran right over and hung out with Crowley until her mom, Meghan, caught up with her. Petey gave her a handful of the little training treats. He explained that I made them and told her a few of the ingredients; one of which is peanut butter.

A few days after Petey gave Luna the treats, Meghan brought Libby, her sweet little toddler (human) over to visit our puppy.

She told me that she was grateful that Petey had told her about the peanut butter, because Libby loved feeding Luna, and she’d planned on giving her the cookies to feed their pooch. But Libby is dangerously allergic to peanuts. Eggs and dairy are issues as well.

Kids and dogs both put everything in their mouths. I decided to make some treats that would be completely safe for little Libby to handle, and even eat.

See?In 0.77 seconds I found 1.12 million results for “name of George Clooney’s pet pig”. It’s Max by the way; and he’s been at the great barnyard in the sky for 11 years! But good luck finding recipes for non-allergenic dog treats.

So I took my already dairy-free standard recipe, and searched substitutes for the peanut butter and the eggs. And to make the task a little trickier, I wanted to use what I had on hand, and not purchase expensive, elusive, special ingredients.

For an egg I discovered 1 tablespoon ground flax seed, mixed with 3 tablespoons water works. And, I subbed in an avocado for the peanut butter.

They came out pretty well. My canine guinea pig, Crowley did all five of his tricks for them, so I guess he liked them. But then he also eats rabbit poop, so maybe he’s a less than discerning food critic.I took them over for Luna and her girl. And when I left, Libby was standing in a pile of dog biscuit crumbs, alternating between feeding them to her buddy and to herself.

Thanks for your time.

Libby’s worry-free dog biscuits

3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons water

1/4 cup melted bacon grease

1/4 cup vegetable oil (may substitute any oil combination)

2 tablespoons flax seeds

1 avocado

1/3 cup canned pumpkin

Big pinch salt

2 ½ -3 ½ cups flour

1 cup self-rising cornmeal

1 cup rolled oats

Preheat oven to 400. Place racks in center two positions.

Line 2 very large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Prepare flax seed egg substitute: Place flax seeds, cornmeal, and 3/4 cup water in small food processor or blender. Blitz until it’s a paste and the seeds have broken down some.

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I'm debbie matthews, a food columnist for the Henderson Daily Dispatch and the Sanford Herald in North Carolina. Recently I've begun writing the odd column for Indy Week, an awesome independent paper in the Triangle.
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